Levantine / Founding

The Levantine Council & Certification

A neutral, supranational, non-profit certification authority for the food of the Fertile Crescent and its Reach. Founded so that the word “Levantine” carries a standard, not a claim.

Why a council

Kosher has the rabbinate. Halal has its certifying bodies. The Catholic world has the Vatican. “Levantine” — one of the oldest food cultures on Earth — has no one. Anyone can print the word on a box, and several nations use it to argue that the table belongs to them alone.

The Council exists to document the shared root and set a verifiable standard. It does not decide who owns hummus. It records that hummus is on everyone’s table, and certifies whether what is in the box is honest.[13][14]

Legal form

• Non-profit corporation organised in Delaware, applying for recognition under U.S. Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3).[10][11]
• The Levantine Seal and its tiers filed with the USPTO as certification marks — a mark that, by law, its owner may not use on its own goods, only license to those who meet the standard.[12]
• Certification practice aligned with ISO/IEC 17065, the international standard for bodies that certify products.[15]
• Ingredient and labelling definitions cross-referenced to Codex Alimentarius.[16]
• Operating name: Levantine Council. Domain: levantinecouncil.com.

Offices, not persons

The structure is built first; people are appointed later. Every office is defined at the level of its title and duty, so that the Council outlives any founder.

• Founding Council — issues the Declaration and adopts the bylaws.
• Founder & Visionary — holder of “The Fifth Table” vision; convenes the Founding Council.
• Chief Standardisation Officer — operational pioneer; writes and maintains the tier standards and the evidence rules.
• Registrar of the Seal — keeps the public registry of certified products and licensees.
• Documenting Secretariat — maintains the heritage map, the kinship table and the Twin Names annex; prepares any future UNESCO intangible-heritage file as the documenting NGO.[1]

The three tiers

1. Levantine CORE — base standard: origin ingredients, documented technique, clean label.
2. Levantine PURE — CORE, plant-based only.
3. Levantine HERITAGE — CORE, pastoral and vegetarian; lineage evidence required (see kinship table, Annex B).

The Levantine Declaration — outline of v1.1

Humanistic in tone, not commercial. Issued by the Founding Council; prepared on its behalf by Value Masters Academy.

1. Levant is a direction, not a country. The word is a compass bearing — sunrise — used at both ends of the same sea.[2][6]
2. Two layers. Levantine Origin: the Fertile Crescent and the eastern shore. Levantine Reach: the nineteen-state network of Mediterranean and Aegean ports.[3]
3. Route anchors. Eastern gates Aleppo, Alexandria, Antakya and İskenderun; western end the Spanish Levante; the 1521 crossing to Mexico.[19]
4. Coffee, Case Zero. The first documented Levantine product to travel the whole route and be adopted by every port on it.[8][9]
5. Anatolian axis. Antakya-Hatay, Urfa, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Anatolia and Rumeli named as seals in their own right.[17][18]
6. Carriers. The Armenian and Rum (Anatolian Greek) peoples recognised as carriers of the table, not footnotes to it.
7. The Shared Table. Israeli–Palestinian and Greek–Turkish names appear side by side, intertwined. The Council documents the shared root; it never adjudicates ownership. No dish shall be raised as a weapon between neighbours.
8. Annex A — Twin Names. The paired register of contested dishes.
9. Annex B — Kinship table. Dish pairs across the route (meze–tapas, gözleme–quesadilla, and the rest), admissible as HERITAGE-tier evidence.[20]
10. The Fifth Table. Closing section. Eat from the roots. Live for the future.

Next steps on record

• Align bylaws v0.1 with the Declaration.
• File the Delaware certificate and the 501(c)(3) application.
• File the certification marks.
• Open the public registry at levantinecouncil.com.

Read the manifesto   All sources